Dallas Payne was taken into custody about 1:30 p.m. Friday after a K-9 unit from the Northwest Florida Reception Center was called in to track him, according to the sheriff and Chipley Police Chief Kevin Crews.

Payne reportedly pushed his way into the home of an elderly woman living on 8th Street in Chipley, said Crews. “He ran from the house and we spent about an hour trying to catch him.”

The man was known to authorities to have a criminal record and a drug habit, Haddock said. The man was being sought by the Chipley Police Department for questioning in a home invasion in the Brickyard Avenue area.

“We made contact with an individual who talked to him right before he done all this, and he said he was blitzed out of his mind on meth,” Crews said.

After Payne fled the house on 8th Street, he was spotted at Northwest Florida Community Hospital, where he allegedly stole some small items, the police chief said.

“He went to the hospital and took a lab coat, and we couldn’t tell if he was armed or not,” the sheriff said. The suspect also confronted some children on the school property, as well as having been spotted near Tyndall Federal Credit Union and Javier’s Restaurant.

The final sighting was at the credit union, and in was in the woods to the west of the credit union that the man was apprehended.

“We set the dogs on him and they got him,” Crews said, “about 200 yards into the woods.”

Roulhac Middle School, Chipley High School and Washington County Christian School were on lockdown as a precaution during the search, but the lockdown was released shortly before 2 p.m.